The higher you are, the harder you fall
by TryingTooHard
Summary: A folktale from Carthak. Excerpt from To Be A Lady.


A special excerpt from To be a Lady

Anna sat down and opened up a hand sewn scripture. It was a collection of the world's tales. _Maybe I can find some information of the dealings of gods in our mortal plane. _ She turned to the subheading of tricks, and found one named "Hair of Gold" and turned to it. She had heard many of the tales already, and this one was new to her. The oldest copy of the book was at the library, and she had been allowed to borrow it. Many stories had been taken out or reworded. She looked at the picture and saw in the picture, a blond girl sitting on a stone weeping.

A common girl of golden hair, name taken by time, fell in love with the tall dark prince of Carthak. One day, despite common manners she walked up to the prince while he was surrounded by his fellows and wife. And got on her knees and pleaded that he love her. The prince was taken aback, while the girl was beautiful she was not high enough rank to serve as a concubine. He smirked and looked at his friends and nobles, "Commoner, whatever your name be, get off your knee. For I do not wish for a worthless household to be represented at my feet."

"Oh I am of worth to this country, while my household does not hold riches, I do." She pleaded, for everything about her yearned for this man.

"What worth do you have?"

"I, I can make gold. See my hair? It is made of finely spun gold!" She said loosing her wit. The strong man's voice had shaken her.

"Humph, I will have guards escort you to the castle if that is true." He walked away and had the girl up to a tall, badly kept tower with nothing but a cot laying in the corner. He left and locked the door. She found a pair of rusted scissors on the bed, and knew the prince expected her to present her golden locks to the court. For lying to the king, the penalty was death.

She lay down sobbing, when she heard an old crones voice, "Hello deary."

Startled she sat up and saw a shawled figure, too obscure to look at directly. "Deary, did you tell that prince your hair was made of gold? Come now child, aunty wont bite." She feared the old woman but looked at her and nodded.

"He told me I was of no worth.."

The old woman's face puckered. "Your worth more than him."

She was shocked and panicked, "Dear aunty don't say such a thing, for if you were heard the prince would sentence you to death!"

The old woman nearly laughed, exposing her toothless mouth. "You know the blessed with the Gift? Those who are nobles now are nobles because of their Gift, the gift the gods have blessed them."

She golden head remained quiet. "You have a Gift also, do you wish it?" The young woman looked at the old crone, fearful and excited.

"I have a Gift?"

"Yes, child. There are Gifts in war, healing, and many other matters. What you have my love, is the gift of alchemy."

"Dear aunty, what is alchemy?"

The old crone took a seat on the golden hair girls bed, "Alchemy is the study of transmutation. You can change the properties of metals."

"So I can turn my hair to gold?"

The old woman smiled, "No but you may turn a sword to gold, a candle stick to gold, or any other metal substance to gold." She looked the the girl and got up slowly, "I must leave now child." A fog overtook the room, withing seconds the Old Hag vanished.

The golden woman felt a new power in her fingertips, and when the prince came later she showed the crowds her powers. For many years the prince, turned king, entertained his guests and filled his treasury with her gift. He also obliged to being her lover, and took her by force to be his mistress.

Years had passed and the golden beauty was satisfied with her life. Until one day when the queen, raging with jealously screamed into the court the golden had lied to the king. The crowd gasped, and all eyes fell onto the now mature woman in question.

"You said to the king when he was merely a prince that your hair was made of gold, but dare I say it, your hair is not made of gold it is made of the same substance mine is. You lied to the king!"

The crowd mumbled and brewed anger. The king stood up and smiled, saying that surely her hair is made of gold. The queen yelled and the king eventually lost interest in the battle. He lead his golden woman into the tallest tower in which she was first housed, and drew a knife.

"My wife will never rest until you are dead. Neither will my people, they will take all of my gold."

Tears welled up in the woman's eyes, "Sire, have you not loved me?"

"Nay, as I said before, what would a household such as yours bring to a king such as I."

"I bring gold and riches, sire!"

"As your bring strife and jealousy! My life is jealous of your beauty as my nobles are jealous of the gold you bribed me with!"

"Bribed!" The golden women fell to her knees sobbing at the cruelty of the prince. As he lunged towards her she placed her hand on his chest. He gasped and his body went limp before he fell to the ground. The golden woman had turned his heart into gold. He had a heart made of metal, not flesh.

The fog quickly overtook the room and the Old Hag came back, the first time in many years. "Ahh dear, I see you have done what you needed to."

The now older girl sat there motionless, too stunned to speak.

Before the Old Hag could say another word the young woman ran towards the window and jumped out. Her body laying broken 14 horse length downward. As she lay dead, the queen walked towards her and made an attempt at cutting off her hair. What she did not realize is that it was really gold.

There lay dead the first and last alchemist over conceived. The Old Hag had given this curse to the woman who needed to teach the pure a lesson of the world. The more you have, the more that can be taken from you.

Though the Old Hag was scolded by many other gods and goddesses, she knew her prank was well thought. In the language of the gods she placed the girls pure soul into the metal and it gained the golden luster which we so look for now, and named the substance again, for it was not the same as it had been. No mortal knows the runes or even the womans name, else they could conjure up massive wealth. Only the seers knew it, and all they hear was the noise Au.


End file.
